A person who is shown a new game cannot remember all its details, some of which may not have been explained to him even. If he tries to teach it to others while his knowledge is in this imperfect state, he will naturally invent rules of his own to cover the points he has forgotten, or has never learnt, usually borrowing ideas from games with which he is more familiar. The pupils of such a teacher pass on to others the game thus imperfectly learnt, and in a short time we have a number of corruptions creeping in, and the astonishing part of it is the insistence with which some persons will maintain that they alone have the right idea of the rules, just because so-and-so showed them the game, or because they and their immediate friends have “always played it that way.” This does not alter the fact that the fundamental principles of every game are known and can be readily found if one knows where to look for them. The author is in possession of several hundred works in various languages--English, French, German and Italian--on nothing but indoor games, comprising probably everything ever printed on the subject that is worth preserving. By tracing the history of a game and its development through the various books in which it is described, the game will always be found to belong to some distinct family, which has certain well-defined traits which must be preserved, no matter how much they may be altered in minor details. All games follow certain general principles, and the surest mark of error in the local rules of any game is inconsistency. Pinochle is a striking example of this. In many places the players will not allow the same cards to be counted twice in the trump sequence, so as to meld 190; but they will count them twice in four kings and queens. They insist on the rule of at least one fresh card from the hand for each additional meld in one case, but totally disregard it in another, as when they meld 240 for the round trip, instead of only 220.
] The pins are set as shown in the diagram. Three balls (not exceeding 6 inches in size) are bowled in each inning. Should a left-handed bowler be bowling, the second quarter pin can be set up on the left quarter spot. Strikes and spares count five each. No penalties are attached. Dead wood must be removed. Any pins knocked down through dead wood remaining on the alley cannot be placed to the credit of the player. Ten innings constitute a game. The maximum is 150. THE NEWPORT GAME.
I saw this game played in Endell Street, London, W.C., by two girls. Their game was not so long nor so complete as the above. They did not throw all four stones down as a preliminary stage, but began with the second figure, the four gobs being placed in a square ::, nor were they particular as to which stones they picked up. They knew nothing of numbering or naming them. Their marble was called a jack. They had places chalked on the pavement where they recorded their successful goes, and the game was played in a ring.--A. B.
OLD MAID. Strange to say, this oft-quoted and continually derided game is not mentioned in any work on cards, a singular omission which we hasten to supply. Any number of young ladies may play, and a pack of fifty-one cards is used, the Queen of hearts having been deleted. Any player can deal the cards, which are distributed one at a time until the pack is exhausted; if every player has not the same number it does not matter. Beginning with the eldest hand, each player sorts her cards into pairs of the same denomination; such as two Fives, two Jacks, etc., and all pairs so formed are laid upon the table face down, without showing them to the other players. All the cards laid out in this manner are left in front of the player, in order to discover errors, if any. Three of a kind cannot be discarded, but four of a kind may be considered as two pairs. The discarding of pairs complete, the dealer begins by spreading her remaining cards like a fan, and presenting them, face downward, to her left-hand neighbour, who must draw one card at random. The card so drawn is examined, and if it completes a pair, the two cards are discarded.
(_d_) The game is clearly a marriage game. It introduces two important details in the betrothal ceremony, inasmuch as the huddling and cuddling is typical of the rude customs at marriage ceremonies once prevalent in Yorkshire, the northern counties, and Wales, while the making of the pudding by the bride and the subsequent eating together, are clearly analogies to the bridal-cake ceremony. In Wales, the custom known as bundling allowed the betrothing parties to go to bed in their clothes (Brand, ii. 98). In Yorkshire, the bridal cake was always made by the bride. The rudeness of the dialogue seems to be remarkably noticeable in this game. See Mary mixed a Pudding up, Oliver, Oliver, follow the King. [1] Miss Chase says, I think the order of verses is right; the children hesitated a little. [2] Mr. Hardy says, This was sung to me by a girl at Earls Heaton or Soothill Nether.
Then two children run under the line of handkerchiefs. The Dorset version is played by as many as like standing, two and two, opposite each other, each of them taking with the right hand the right hand of the other; then the two that are the King and Queen say or sing the first question, to which the others reply, and the dialogue ends in this manner. Then all the other pairs hold up their hands as high as they can, and the King and Queen run through the archway and back again, and so on with the next pair, and other pairs in turn. The Isle of Man version is played, Mr. Moore says, the same as other Thread the Needle games. (_c_) The game is evidently dramatic in form, and perhaps is illustrative of some fact of history, such as the toll upon merchandise entering a walled town. The changes in the words of the different versions are not very great, but they show the influence of modern history upon the game. The appearance of King George evidently points to the date when it was frequently played, though the older versions are doubtless those in which his Majesty does not do duty. Mactaggart has the following quaint note which perhaps may supply the origin, though it seems a far cry to the Crusaders:-- This sport has something methinks of antiquity in it; it seemeth to be a pantomime of some scenes played off in the time of the Crusades. King and Queen o Cantilon evidently must be King and Queen of Caledon, but slightly changed by time.
Philosophy of Whist, by Dr. Pole. Winning Whist, by Emory Boardman. Chance and Luck, by R.A. Proctor. Complete Poker Player, by John Blackbridge. Bohn’s Handbook of Games. Betting and Gambling, by Major Churchill. TEN PINS.
At Monte Carlo, everything is perfectly fair and straightforward, but no games are played except those in which the percentage in favour of the bank is evident, and is openly acknowledged. In Faro there is no such advantage, and no honest faro bank can live. It is for that reason that the game is not played at Monte Carlo, in spite of the many thousands of Americans who have begged the management to introduce it. The so-called percentage of “splits” at Faro is a mere sham, and any candid dealer will admit that they do not pay for the gas. Roulette, Rouge et Noir, Keno, and Chuck Luck are all percentage games, although the banker in the latter is seldom satisfied with his legitimate gains. The peculiarity about all percentage banking games is that no system, as a system, will beat them. The mathematical expectation of loss is so nicely adjusted to the probabilities of gain that the player must always get just a little the worst of it if he will only play long enough. Take any system of martingales, and suppose for the sake of illustration that in 1000 coups you will win 180 counters. The mathematical expectation of the game is such that just about once in a thousand coups your martingale will carry you to a point in which you will lose 200 counters, leaving you just 20 behind on every 1000 if you keep on playing. Every system has been carefully investigated, and enormous labour has been expended on the compilation of tables recording for a long series of time every number rolled at Roulette, and every coup raked in at Rouge et Noir, and the result of all systems is found to be the same, the bank succeeds in building up its percentage like a coral island, while the player’s money disappears like water in the sand.
[Illustration] _=The Massé.=_ Most players imagine this to be a very difficult shot, but it is extremely simple if the principle of the direction of the cue and the effect of the pinch are kept in view. If we place the three balls in a straight line, about four inches apart, we have the simplest form of the massé. To find the exact spot at which the cue ball must be struck, join the centres of the cue and object balls by an imaginary line A-B. At right angles to this will be a line A-E, and no matter which side of the ball B you wish to massé upon, your cue must strike the ball A somewhere on the line A-E. Suppose you wish to massé to the left, as shown in the diagram. The pinch must be made on the ball about a quarter from the top, the cue being pointed in the direction in which you want the ball to go, which will be to the extreme edge of B, on the line C-D. The cue must be held at an angle of about 70 degrees. A firm but light blow with a well chalked cue will pinch your ball toward E; but the direction of the cue will propel it toward D. If the cue has been held at the right angle, and you have not struck too hard, the ball will feel the effect of these two forces equally, which will make it move toward a point half way between D and E, which will be F.
Common A game played with a ball and crooked stick (cut from a tree or hedge), with a crook at the end (same game as Hurl ).--Dublin (Mrs. Lincoln). Mr. Patterson (_Antrim and Down Glossary_) mentions this as Hockey; the same as Shinney. Called in some districts, he adds, Comun and Kamman, from the Irish name for the game. Conkers The same game as Cogger. The game is more generally called playin at sneel-shells. --Ross and Stead s _Holderness Glossary_. Conquerors or Conkers I.